Violet is a humble but heartfelt musical about a young woman who triumphs over physical and psychic scars as she journeys toward personal discovery. The story is elevated by Jeanine Tesori’s distinctly American and original music that pulls from country roots, Memphis blues, R&B and even gospel, with Brian Crawley’s lyrics widening the voice and meaning. With superb direction by Dyan McBride, choreography by Matthew McCoy and versatile conducting by Jon Gallo, Violet makes it very hard indeed to sit still.

The time is 1964, when Vietnam was barely in the news, racial slurs seeped into everyday conversations, and traditional roles were shifting.

The 13-year-old Violet (“Vi"), played with a wonderful aplomb by Miranda Long, is an inquisitive and boisterous child until a horrible accident involving an ax disfigures her face and shakes her self-confidence, but not her resilience. Vi closely mirrors the adult Violet, played by Juliana Lustenader, who has developed a hard shell to withstand the pain of not being looked at. With no room for self pity, she aims to achieve her dream of looking beautiful.

Miranda Long and Clay David photo: Ben Krantz

Finally old enough to act for herself, Violet, clutching her dead mother’s well-used and heavily annotated catechism, boards a Greyhound bus in North Carolina to journey to Tulsa to meet the televangelist she believes will heal her face and make her beautiful with ”Elke Sommer's hair / With Judy Garland's pretty chin / With Grace Kelly's little nose / With Rita Hayworth's skin / But Ava Gardner for the eyebrows / Bergman cheekbones under Gypsy eyes..."

Violet is resilient and shrewd, having learned early from her father (Eric Neiman) how to play poker, a life lesson for holding, folding and bluffing that serves her well. Neiman paints a loving and realistic father in “Luck of the Draw”:Some say things happen by designBy demand, decree, or lawI say most things fall in lineBy the luck of the draw

Lustenader and Long’s voices are rich with yearning and spirit, and we want to both encourage and protect Violet on her journey.

The Greyhound bus is a rolling box of humanity, with all sorts of characters coming aboard singing “On My Way." The staging of a bumpy bus ride is fun, and you want to bounce along with the quirky driver (Clay David). Violet meets two fresh Army recruits on their way to basic training, the African-American Flick (Jon-David Randle) and the hunky but dumb flirt Monty (Jack O’Reilly), and she literally wins them over by beating them at poker. She shows no fear as she imagines the possibility of being loved, wanted, and most of all, looked at.

What makes Violet so enjoyable is the journey with music, which reveals so much about a place and the people who live there. For example, the blues fill the air on Beale Street as the lonely hotel hooker (Shay Oglesby-Smith) sings “Anyone Would Do.”

In “Let It Sing,” Jon-David Randle as Flick puts his heart into his understanding of Violet’s aspiration to be heard and seen:

You’ve got to give yourself a reason to rejoiceCause the music you make counts for everythingNow every living soul has got a voiceYou’ve got to give it roomAnd let it sing

Clay David and Cast photo: Ben Krantz

Violet finally reaches Tulsa, impatient to meet the preacher and be cured. In “Raise Me Up,” with Clay David’s over-the-top, high octane preaching, the ensemble’s glorious gospel singing, and Lula’s (Tanika Baptiste) soulful solo, I almost jumped up from my seat to be one of the saved.

The meticulous attention paid to period detail is a delight. The rack full of mid-1960s magazines, the clunky 60’s TV studio camera, the crisp suits and dresses of the women on the bus, and the sultry sequins of the Beale street women all contribute to the mood. Kudos to scenic designer Matthew McCoy, costume designer Brooke Jennings, and properties designer Clay David.

The only drawbacks for me were inconsistent miking that muffled some lyrics and the horizontal backdrop slats that blocked some of the action.

Despite the supercharged music, the story line of Violet is not that compelling or convincing (for example, why does Violet choose to be with one person and not another?) It probably doesn’t matter anyway, because we know for sure that Violet is finally “on her way.”